We had a wonderful time visiting my sister and brother-in-law in Seattle! I decided to just take my “mid-level” camera along — the Sony NEX-5 — instead of the SLR, so while these are all taken with either that or my iPhone and therefore aren’t always the greatest, I think they capture the highlights of our trip just as well!
The flight there was just over 4 hours. This was Emma’s third flight, and it was…the worst of the three, unfortunately. We lucked out with an empty seat in our row, but even that didn’t help when Emma suddenly realized she was overtired and threw a 20-minute tantrum before finally passing out. There were tears — from both her and from me — but we made it, and as a bonus we got a FANTASTIC view of Mt. Rainier as we approached Seattle.
We spent our first day just hanging out in Auburn (where Katie and Joel live) while they went to work. They have a cute whippet named Kenzie, and although she’s kind of a scaredy-cat, she let Emma hug and pet and generally love on her. For her part, Emma was very gentle too, which made me proud.
On Thursday, Katie and Joel took off work and we all went to the Museum of Glass in Tacoma. I shared photos from one of the cool exhibits already, but the other highlight was the museum’s Hot Shop, where we watched visiting artist Dante Marioni make a couple fancy glasses. And the Hot Shop did indeed live up to its name — with the ovens going, it was noticeably warm in there even from 30 feet away! The heat and white noise of the Hot Shop made Emma conk right out (she was due for a nap anyway), so afterward she slept while we walked across the Bridge of Glass outside.
That evening, we met Joel’s parents and brother and friend for dinner at Ivar’s at Coulon Park, a really nice little place in Renton at the south end of Lake Washington. Emma ran around like a crazy person while the rest of us took turns making sure she didn’t fall into the lake. (Not kidding.)
On Saturday, we had another low key day and were able to meet Jen and her family for lunch and a trip back to Coulon Park, which also had a fantastic kid’s play area. Emma ran around like a crazy person again while little L was cool, calm and collected (and really cute). I neglected to get any photos other than the two above. In the first one, you can see L in the blue dress on the opposite side of the see-saw from Emma, and B and part of Jen standing behind me. (Emma stayed on the see-saw for approximately 3 seconds before tearing off towards another part of the playground.) In the second, I accidentally caught B and half of L on the right side. Anyway — proof that we really did get to meet up! It was great to see them, and it made me wish we lived closer!
I’ll post photos from Friday and Sunday soon…
